


The Boyfriend

by Roselightfairy



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Gen, my teenage self wrote cliches okay, outsider pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-12
Updated: 2012-12-12
Packaged: 2019-05-09 16:49:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14719895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roselightfairy/pseuds/Roselightfairy
Summary: The cliche: Annabeth's private-school friend finds out that Annabeth has a boyfriend. The twist: This mortal already knows Percy Jackson, from long ago.





	The Boyfriend

Annabeth Chase.

Nancy Bobofit would never understand that girl.

She was Nancy’s polar opposite in everything from looks to brains to attitude, and Nancy found it impossible to comprehend.

Tall, blond, and with intense gray eyes, her looks were unforgettable.  But she never seemed to care about them at all.  She never wore makeup or clothes other than jeans and a T-shirt, and Nancy had never seen her hair out of its messy ponytail.  And yet, every boy who saw her was stunned into silence.  It made Nancy, who spent at least an hour curling her bright red hair and attempting to cover her multitudes of freckles with concealer every morning, pale with jealousy.

Annabeth was easily the best athlete in their gym class – outstripping even the boys on the track team during the runs, showing strength, agility, and accuracy beyond anything anyone else in the class could – but she wasn’t in a single sport.  She didn’t get any regular exercise as far as Nancy could see – outside of gym class, in any case – and she remained muscular and trim.  And her endurance level was so high that she could do almost anything in the class without even breaking a sweat, mentally or physically.

No, the only thing the girl seemed to care about was her intelligence – and there, she needn’t have worried.  She was the smartest girl in their whole school, without a doubt.  Though only a sophomore, she was in classes with seniors and set the curve for them.  (Nancy was still in freshman math)  And yet, every time a question was asked for which she didn’t know the answer, her whole face would scrunch up, like she was disappointed in herself.  And then the next day, she’d be able to recite every fact about the question that had been asked from memory.

(Nancy didn’t know that personally, but her older sister was in one of Annabeth’s classes, and had told her about it)

Annabeth also didn’t have any friends.  She was a complete loner, and talked very little except for in class.  She wanted to be an architect someday – that one Nancy hadn’t needed her older sister for; anyone who’d ever exchanged two words with Annabeth knew that she loved architecture – and spent every single moment of her free time with sketch pad and pencils in hand, working on some secret project that she wouldn’t tell anyone about.  (Nancy had asked one time, and she’d slammed the sketchbook shut before Nancy could get a good look at it, and given her a death glare)

Nancy herself was the complete opposite of the formerly-California girl (she’d heard that Annabeth was from San Francisco, and it fit her looks).  The only things she really felt dedicated to were looks and boys – neither of which Annabeth cared about at all.  She’d turned down every boy who’d asked her out – and almost all of them had.  It was enough to make Nancy scream.  The girl was beautiful, athletic, and had date offers piling up at the door, but she didn’t seem to care about any of it.

One afternoon, as she was crossing campus on the way to the cafeteria, Nancy spotted Rob Benson, her latest crush, heading in the opposite direction.  Wondering if she could surreptitiously change direction to talk to him, she was pulled up short when she noticed his destination: one Annabeth Chase, holding a bottle of water and lounging against a low wall in the courtyard.

Nancy sighed out loud; she couldn’t help herself.  She didn’t think that Annabeth was really trying to look sexy, but the way her back was pressed against the statue had pulled her shirt tight against her figure, and she was loosely twirling her ponytail around one finger, looking so good that models would have killed to be her.  She didn’t even seem to notice Rob approach her.

But, as Rob was too absorbed in Annabeth to be paying attention to anyone else, he wouldn’t notice Nancy approaching either, and the conversation proved too promising to not eavesdrop.  She crept closer, watching as Rob made eye contact with Annabeth and said something.  Annabeth’s face changed from the carefree expression she’d been wearing earlier, to apology, to impatience.

Nancy drew near enough to hear them, just in time to hear Annabeth’s response.  “I’m sorry, Rob, but I actually have plans with my boyfriend over the weekend.”

Nancy choked.  A _boyfriend?_

That was something she’d never expected of Annabeth.  The girl had zero interest in anything but math and architecture, right?  She didn’t care about how she looked, because she didn’t care about boys.  Right?

Rob looked similarly stunned, because he opened his mouth and closed it again a few times before any sound came out.  “Who’s your boyfriend?” he finally managed.

“Oh,” she smiled.  “You don’t know him.  He doesn’t go here.  I met him at summer camp.”

But as Nancy looked at her, she could see a sparkle in the gray eyes.  The only other time Nancy had ever seen Annabeth look like that was when she’d somehow gotten trapped into a conversation about Hoover Dam with the blond girl.  This boyfriend must be someone special.

“What are you doing with him?” asked Rob, regaining his composure.

“Oh, I’m not quite sure just yet,” she said airily.  “We’re spending the weekend together, and we’ll probably go visit the Empire State Building at some point.”  She smiled at some private joke.  “He’s picking me up here on Friday if you want to meet him.”  She shrugged her shoulders like she didn’t care one way or the other.

But Nancy decided that she would like to meet this boyfriend.  Because the kind of guy who could make a girl like Annabeth turn down a boy like Rob – well, she wanted to know who that could be.

* * *

So, on Friday, after classes, Nancy tracked down Annabeth, and followed her discreetly to the courtyard.  Because the week was over, people were milling all over the place waiting for rides or just huddling and gossiping, so it was easy to get lost in the crowd.  But as Annabeth moved further towards the front entrance, Nancy followed her.  She was more than a little curious about this boyfriend.  Maybe unhealthily so.  But she wanted to know.

Annabeth stood next to the nearest statue.  The school had a thing about Greek mythology, and representation statues stood all over the place.  Annabeth had always seemed fascinated with them.  Sometimes Nancy had caught her looking at the statues, smirking and shaking her head as though she knew something that the carver hadn’t.  At the moment, Annabeth was leaning against the statue of Zeus that decorated the entrance.  Nancy copied her position on the statue of Poseidon, the god of the sea, and looked in the same direction as Annabeth.

As more and more people streamed through the entrance, it seemed that the word of Annabeth’s boyfriend had spread – many people had taken up Nancy’s position, eyes on Annabeth.  She was more of an enigma to the whole school than Nancy had originally thought, it seemed.  At one point the blond girl turned around and spared them one glance with amused gray eyes, before shrugging and reassuming her position.

Then, when most of the people had already gone and only Annabeth and the people watching her were left, a dented blue Prius pulled into the parking lot.  Annabeth let out a deep sigh and straightened up, pulling her bag higher onto her shoulder.  As a tall, dark-haired boy got out of the car and walked toward her, she waved and called out, “You’re late, Seaweed Brain!”

He sped up, almost running, with an apologetic look on his face.  She didn’t even move, just stood there and waited for him to come to her.  Nancy had to admire the girl: This boy was whipped.

As he approached, Nancy’s breath caught in her throat – he was seriously attractive.  She understood now why Annabeth had turned down all those boys.  But, she felt like there was something about that face . . . she should _know_ that face.

When he had finally reached Annabeth, he leaned down, kissed her quickly, and then pulled back, smiling.  “Sorry about that,” he said, reaching down to take her hand.  “Would you believe me if I said it wasn’t my fault I was late?”

She smiled playfully, an expression Nancy had never seen on Annabeth’s intense, serious face before.  “Depends on your excuse,” she replied, linking her fingers with his anyway.  “I wanted you to see these statues, though.  Look – that’s Zeus!” She indicated her statue, grin growing wider.

He snorted.  “Ha.”

“And,” she continued, “over there is Poseidon.”  She indicated to where Nancy was standing, and, feeling suddenly awkward, Nancy moved over so he could see the statue.

The (still unnamed) boyfriend snorted louder this time.  “Completely inaccurate,” he muttered, before seeming to realize that someone was standing there.  Annabeth swatted his arm lightly, but then his eyes locked with Nancy’s, and widened.

Hers did, too.  She _definitely_ knew those eyes.  She’d only ever seen one person with that sea-green color before.  “Percy Jackson?” she managed to gasp.

He appeared even more shocked.  “ _Nancy Bobofit?_ ”

Annabeth tugged on his arm.  “You two know each other?” she asked curiously.  “From where?”

“Yancy Academy, sixth grade,” the now-identified Percy Jackson said.  “The year before my first summer at camp.”

“Where you met Grover?” she asked.

Nancy remembered Grover.  The funny-looking kid with the limp she used to throw food at, best friends with Percy.  But Percy had been much shorter and scrawnier then.  He’d _definitely_ grown over the last few years – in more ways than one.  If he had been anyone other than Percy Jackson, and his girlfriend anyone other than Annabeth Chase, Nancy would have been seriously attracted to him.  But she’d already been on the receiving end of Annabeth’s death glare once – and that was enough for her.

Besides, Percy was now looking at her like she was about to pull a peanut butter sandwich out of her bag and throw it at his head.  Please.

“Yeah,” he answered Annabeth.  Then he turned to Nancy.  “Hi . . . again, I guess,” he said awkwardly.

“I’m not going to throw food at you, you know,” she said exasperatedly, looking at him.  “I am actually sixteen now, and not twelve anymore.”

Annabeth laughed a little, and rolled her eyes.  Percy looked a little sheepish, and extended his hand.  “Right,” he said.  “Well . . . nice to . . . re-meet you?”

Nancy laughed, too, and took his hand.  “Same,” she said, feeling a little lame.  But, as mentioned, she really didn’t want to deal with the Annabeth-Chase-Death-Glare.  It was a good thing the girl didn’t know how scary she actually was.

After the most awkward handshake in human history, Percy withdrew his hand, and turned back to Annabeth.  “Ready to go?” he asked her.

She smiled again – still looking so different from the focused girl Nancy had always seen in school.  “Definitely,” she said.  She turned to the little crowd of onlookers, whose focus had now shifted (at least somewhat) to Nancy, and gave them a little wave.  “Have a good weekend!”

Embarrassed at being called out, some of them mumbled replies, but most of them just looked down at their feet.  Annabeth laughed again, louder this time, and took Percy’s hand.  “Come on, Seaweed Brain,” she said.  “Let’s go.”

As she towed him to the car, he turned around and met Nancy’s eyes once more.  She smiled, though still a little bewildered, and waved to him.  And as Annabeth got into the passenger side and the car pulled out, Nancy stared after it.

She had a lot of questions for Annabeth on Monday.


End file.
